Portal:Forestry
Forestry
![Pine forest in Sweden.jpg](http://web.archive.org./web/20170204203817im_/https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/42/Pine_forest_in_Sweden.jpg/230px-Pine_forest_in_Sweden.jpg)
A pine forest in Sweden
Forestry is the science, art, and craft of creating, managing, using, conserving, and restoring forests and associated resources to meet desired goals, needs, and values for human benefit. Forestry is practiced in plantations and natural stands. The main goal of forestry is to create and implement systems that manage forests to provide environmental supplies and services. The challenge of forestry is to create systems that are socially accepted while sustaining the resource and any other resources that might be affected.
Forests cover approximately 9.4 percent of the Earth's surface (or 30 percent of total land area), though they once covered much more (about 50 percent of total land area), in many different regions and function as habitats for organisms, hydrologic flow modulators, and soil conservers, constituting one of the most important aspects of the biosphere. Forests are present in many biomes:
- Polar/montane Taiga, Boreal forests
- Temperate: Coniferous forests · Broadleaf and mixed forests
- (Sub)tropical: Coniferous forests · Moist broadleaf forests · Dry broadleaf forests
- Wetland/ Aquatic biomes: Mangrove forest · Kelp forest ·
Selected article
Sequoia sempervirens includes the tallest trees on Earth, reaching up to 379 feet (115.5 m) in height. It is an evergreen, long-lived, monoecious tree living 1200–1800 years or more. This species includes the tallest trees living now on Earth, reaching up to 379 feet (115.5 m) in height (without the roots) and up to 26 feet (7.9 m) in diameter at breast height. Before commercial logging and clearing began by the 1850s, this massive tree occurred naturally in an estimated 2,100,000 acres (8,500 km2) along much of coastal California (excluding southern California where rainfall is not sufficient) and the southwestern corner of coastal Oregon within the United States. An estimated 95% or more of the original old-growth redwood forest has been cut down, due to its excellent properties for use as lumber in construction. |
Selected biography
Sakari Pinomäki (1933–2011) was a Finnish systems engineer, who pioneered the mechanized forestry industry. He was the founder of PIKA Forest Machines which produced the first purpose-built forest machine in 1964. Sakari Pinomäki's first company, PIKA Forest Machines, is credited with designing the first self-propelled tree length timber processor, the PIKA Model 60, in 1968, and the first fully mobile timber "harvester", the PIKA Model 75, in 1974. These machines differed significantly from other "retro-fitted" forestry machines in that they were designed from inception to be timber harvesting and processing equipment, and were not conventional farming or earth moving equipment with additional apparatus welded onto them to allow timber processing work to be possible. |
In the news
- November 14, 2013: "Forest change mapped by Google Earth". BBC News.
- May 31, 2013: "East Africa: EAC Moots Improvement of Regional Forestry, Trade". The New Times.* May 24, 2013: "Democratic polemic policies: the new Brazilian forestry code". The World Outline.
- May 14, 2013: "Rainforest plays critical role in hydropower generation". BBC News.
- May 9, 2013: "Creating Better Forestry Certification Programs through Competition". Forbes Magazine.
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Tropical rainforests face threats of deforestation
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- Forestry: An International Journal of Forest Research (Oxford Journals). (All 2011-2012 articles are available for free viewing)
- U.K. Forestry Commissions – Forest Research
- U.S. Forest Service Research & Development
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